Narrative

Prickly sida (Sida spinosa) is found from Maine to Michigan and south to Florida and Texas. This species is also widely distributed in South America. This erect plant can be up to two or three feet tall. The toothed leaves are somewhat lanceolate in shape. The axillary flowers are yellow.

The yellow color will help identify this lifeform.

This lifeform is widespread in North America. This lifeform is found widely in the New World tropics.

Sida genus is native to the warmer parts of the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Indo-Australian region. There are about 150 species of herbs (plus some small shrubs) in this genus. The leaves are lobed or toothed. There were 26 species established in greater North America, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as of 1994.

Mallow Family (Malvaceae) is a large family of about 1,500 species arranged in about 115 different genera. These species are distributed widely and most commonly in the New World Tropics. These are mostly herbs or shrubs, but a few trees are included in tropical regions. The leaves are usually alternate with palmately-veined leaves. The large and showy flowers typically have five petals. There are 260 species arranged in 41 different genera growing in greater North America.

Malvales are a group of woody plants and herbs generally limited to the tropics. However, there are a few species in the United States.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings.

Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite (Aster) Family flowers like the Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.